


Monster Hunting is Serious

by GeotheTank



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Iceborne made the serious handler too adorable and so i made this, Not a self insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22348084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeotheTank/pseuds/GeotheTank
Summary: A basic bout of sea sickness alters the fate of our sapphire star, instead of being stuck with a food junkie of a handler, he gets a handler who takes her job a little more serious.
Relationships: Serious Handler (Monster Hunter)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	Monster Hunting is Serious

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday gift to myself. Because serious handler deserves all the love.

While the rocking of the boat might have been soothing to some, Geo found himself cursing its existence for what seemed to be the third day in a row. He’d been looking forward to chatting with the other hunters of the fifth fleet, but his upset stomach had him keeping his large frame firmly in the hammock he had commandeered.

If there was one thing that made it tolerable, it was the fact that he could use his eye patch to cover his good eye and stop the light from making his headache worse. Axel had been as great a partner always, his Palico bringing him some light food from meals. Nowhere near his usual meal size, but he was able to keep it down.

As he hauled himself to a standing position, however, he willed his feet forward and towards the dining area, one step at a time. They were due to get their handler assignments today and he’d be damned if his partner had to come and find him.

As he entered the dining hall, he bumped into a smaller figure, accidentally causing them to drop the papers they had been sorting. Feeling sorry for the man, he helped gather the scattered sheets.

“Sorry about that. Still haven’t gotten my sea legs under me yet.”

“Its fine,” the man said, “Just help me make sure I didn’t lose anything, that would be a headache.”

Once he finished helping the man he made his way to a table, idly noticing the faces looking at him in surprise. Standing a head taller than most of the other hunters, something he had gotten from his father, and his father before him, if his grandmother was to be believed. The fact that he probably looked like he’d just appeared out of nowhere to those who didn’t register his form in the hammock.

Passing by a table with a girl who had an absurd amount of food piled on her plate, he took a mug from a passing Palico and took a seat near the center of the dining area. Nudging the hunter nearest him, an excitable fellow with red hair, he asked the question on his mind.

“Any idea how much longer until partners are assigned? I’ve been stuck in a hammock and don’t even know what the fifth fleet master looks like.”

Turning to face Geo, the excitable A-lister’s eyes lit up in recognition once they landed upon his large frame and black mane of spiky hair.

“Woah! You’re the hedgehog! I didn’t know you were on our boat!”

Ah yes, ‘the hedgehog', a nickname he’d earned from his hair’s iconic back spikes, and his affinity for flipping end over end with his hammer, throwing his entire weight and muscle into each hit. He wanted to smack the senior hunter that gave him that nickname. It had stuck to him worse than aptomoth dung. 

“Yeah, I’ve been having some sea sickness the past few days. Anyways, my question?”

Shaking his head, the hunter nods, nearly vibrating in his seat with excess energy.

“Right, it should be any second now, the fifth fleet master is right over there, probably putting the final touches on assignments, if I had to guess. I’m actually pretty excited!”

The A-lister gestured to the man Geo had bumped into earlier, thumbing through the pages as he shuffled a few around. Seemingly satisfied, he straightened them all up, before walking towards the front and clearing his throat. When that didn’t manage to get everyone to quiet down however, he picked up an empty metal tray and struck it with a spoon, getting everyone’s attention and silence with the loud clatter.

“Now that I have your attention, I am happy to begin with partner assignments! Listen closely please! Raise your hand when I call you so that you can find your partner! If they’re not here, try and find them after we dismiss! We make landfall in 3 hours!”

Taking the papers, he started reading names off one after another. Not hearing any names he recognized, Geo idly nursed his drink while he waited for his own to be called. That is, untill his seatmate perked up when his name was reached.

“Jeremy and.. Karen?  Was that what I decided on? ”

The foodie excitedly waved her hand towards the now named Jeremy, food sauce staining her freckled face.

“And lastly, we have Geo and Katherine!”

Lazilly raising his hand above his head, Geo looked around for his new handler. When no other hands were raised however, his brows furrowed in confusion.

The now named Jeremy bumped him before gesturing to the stairs.

“I think she might be up on the deck, she was drawing something when I came down.”

Giving a quick “thanks,” Geo tossed his drink back before making his way up the stairs, keeping an eye out for Axel as he did so.

Shielding his eye as he stepped on deck, Geo couldn’t help the slight wince from the first bit of light he had seen in 3 days. Glancing around the deck for anyone drawing, he spotted the woman towards the front of the ship sitting on the railing.

As he got closer he  checked out appraised his new partner. She was wearing a flattering set of green leathers, matching the headband she wore to keep her black hair out of her face. Letting his boots thud against the wood as he approached, he made sure not to spook her with his arrival.

“So, you wouldn’t happen to be Katherine would you?”

Closing her journal, she stood and dusted her britches. Geo noted she came up to his shoulder.

“Yes sir, that's me, and who might be asking?”

Holding out a hand Geo gave her his best smile.

“Your new partner as of 5 minutes ago. Name’s Geo.”

Glancing at his hand and then the sun, Katherine’s face flushed red in embarrassment before shaking it and sighing.

“I told Jeremy to come and get me… you’d think I’d learn one of these days.”

Geo couldn’t help his snort of amusement. Apparently Katherine had known Jeremy for a while.

“That may have been partially my fault, sorry about that. He got distracted by me and must’ve forgotten. So what were you drawing?”

Flipping open her journal, she showed him an almost finished sketch of the skyline, complete with the Barnos that marked land not too far away.

“That’s… really good!” Geo complimented, “I can do a couple basic sketches and maps myself, but detail is not a strong point of mine.”

Passing her journal back, Katherine opened her mouth to reply, but all that came out was a startled ‘eep’ as a strong thud rocked the boat, making even Geo’s large form stumble into the railing.

“The hell was that?!”

From his perch, Geo saw the water in front of the ship begin to darken, before rapidly spreading down the sides of the boat as waves churned up white foam along the edges.

He had to tighten his grip on the railings as an even worse lurch hit the ship, before the feeling of vertigo struck him as the ship started to rapidly rise from the water, the front of the ship rapidly angling upwards. He barely had time to notice Katherine losing her grip as the incline became too much.

“I gotcha!”

Throwing out his right hand he managed to grab her forearm as she fell past him. He barely managed to revel in his successful catch before something, likely a sandbag, slammed into him from his blind side, causing him to lose his grip. He barely had time to pull her towards him and turn them around before his back slammed into the aft railing, knocking the breath out of him as it sent them into a flip, before finally slamming them into hard jagged rock.

The harsh snap of bone breaking was a sound he was familiar with. It usually brought him comfort, knowing that he had managed to wound a monster so badly as to break something. Right now however it was the last thing he wanted to hear.

Catching his breath, Geo separated himself from Katherine, doing a quick assessment for injuries. Besides the bruise he could feel forming under his leather armor, he was mostly alright, which meant..

A sharp hiss from his partner had him looking her over for injuries. Quickly finding the source of her pain Geo couldn’t help but wince in sympathy. Feet were not supposed to bend that way. On the bright side, it looked like a clean break in her shin, he didn’t see any blood forming, so it hadn’t pierced the skin.

As the ground rumbled beneath them, Geo glanced up to see large rocks beginning to fall from the sheer cliff not far away, but he couldn’t help the relief at seeing the barnos circling at the top.

Kneeling near Katherin’s leg, he started removing his knife from its sheath, before he started to remove one of his shin guards.

“Besides the obvious, how are you feeling?” he asked, “There’s some barnos up above that should be able to get us to safety, if I can get my slinger on one.”

Trying to ignore the throbbing coming from her leg, Katherine did a quick self-assessment.

“I think I’m fine, I’m assuming you have a plan?” It was taking a bit of effort to keep her breathing and voice even.

Shrugging, Geo used his knife to cut his shin guard down before doing the same to the opposite piece of armor.

“It’s not much of one, long and short I’m gonna splint your leg as best I can, and I’m gonna get us both up there and hopefully get a potion in ya. It won’t get you able to fully walk and run, but it’ll at least get your bones back together. You might want to bite on that and uh, sorry if it smells...” Geo passed her a bit of the cut off shin guard, then got his straps and armor in position.

Putting the cut bit into her mouth, she bit down sharply, letting out a grunt of pain as Geo positioned her leg into a more proper direction, before quickly and effectively getting a strong knot tied to keep her leg in as solid of a position as he could manage. The smell of being unable to take a bath for the majority of week helped distract her as well.

“There we go! All set.”

Crouching so she could climb onto his back, Geo helped Katherine into a pseudo piggy back ride. It was a bit of work getting her high enough her arms were able to wrap over his shoulders, but she was confident in her ability to hold her weight… hopefully.

As Geo walked towards the wall, Kathering tightened her grip on Geo’s armor straps as the daunting climb loomed before them. It was at least a hundred feet up to the next cliff.

“You sure you’ll be fine carrying me up there?”

Planning his climb, Geo couldn’t help but notice her tightening her grip with her legs as they dug into his bruised sides..

“ _ I am both impressed and slightly scared, I can feel her thighs squeezing me through my armor… granted I have been off armorskin for nearly a week now.” _

“Relax! You weigh about as much as my weapon, I’ve done plenty of climbs like this back home.”

Closing her eyes, Katherine focused on keeping her breathing even as Geo started climbing, hissing as the bumps agitated her broken leg. Desperate to take her mind off the situation, and the pain, she asked the first thing her brain latched onto.

“So, do I really weigh as much as your hammer? Surely you’re exaggerating…”

Geo grunted as he pulled himself up to a better foot hold, before tilting his head in thought for a moment.

“Little less actually, you’re also a lot easier to balance.”

Kathering was starting to lose the feeling in her fingers when Geo said what she had been waiting for what felt like so long to hear.

“Get ready, almost to the top”

Tightening her grip, something she didn’t think she could do a second ago, Geo managed to get them up and over the cliff edge. Catching his breath, Geo rested his hands on his knees as Katherine’s weight was shifted so that she was almost lying down across his back instead of holding her own weight fully. With her head being right next to his, she clearly heard his quiet hiss of pain as he pulled his hands back from his knees, red hand prints clearly marking where they had been. 

“Oh my god are you alright?!”

As Geo jerked in surprise, Katherine barely kept her balance as he appeared to relax again. Flipping one of his hands around so she could better see it, she saw small bits of black rock stabbed into his palms, though none of them seemed large or deep, multiple were causing spots of blood, roughly equal to that of a papercut over his hand.

“It’s fine! It stings a bit, but nothing a good potion won’t fix. I grabbed a couple spots I shouldn’t have. Been years since I’ve been off armorskin this long.”

As Geo stood back up straight and started his way up the smooth black slope they were on, she could hear the Barnos getting louder. She knew hunters were tough, but couldn’t help but worry that he was pretending for her sake.

“What’s it like anyway? Armorskin that is. I know its something only hunters are allowed, but other than that I don’t know much about it.”

Doing his best version of a shrug, Geo thought about his answer.

“It does a bit of what it sounds like, it hardens the skin and organs when taken regularly, letting us get hit by blows that would break other’s bones, and have sharp claws nick us instead of cut limbs clean off.”

Rubbing the back of his hand along his eyepatch, Geo continued at her silence.

“Granted, new hunters take a while to fully become accustomed to it. I had only just started routinely taking mine when a Great Jaggi gave me this. Once your body’s used to it once though, it doesn’t take you too long to get used to it again if you do have to take a break.”

As they reached the top of the slope, another, much smaller cliff blocked their way as Geo let out a wince before starting up it. Katherine took the opportunity to ask another question.

“In that case, why only limit it to hunters? From what I’ve heard the ingredients are common and easy to grow.”

Hauling them up, Geo was happy to see that they were almost at the top, and were almost close enough to hook a barnos.

“Its kinda obvious in retrospect, you’ve seen how much we eat right? Armorskin’s the reason. Makes our metabolism skyrocket. It’s the reason the Commission ordered all hunters to stop taking it a week before we left for the new world. Otherwise we’d have devoured the ships stores of food days ago.”

Katherine took a moment to digest that bit of information before their eyes cleared the slope, letting them see between the two ridges to their side, land was visible as far as they could see with the shore being only a few miles away. Geo couldn’t help but let out a whistle at the sight.

“Woah… I didn’t think we were that close.”

Katherine however, while amazed, couldn’t help the sinking feeling in her gut.

“We weren’t…”

No sooner did they words leave her mouth than did the ground lurch under their feet, causing Geo to lose his footing as the ground they were standing on rapidly shifted into a downward slope. As the edge came towards them in an almost ramp like way, Geo threw his admittedly impressive weight into a leap before rapidly turning and firing his slinger at the Barnos and hooking one with the ease of uncountable times before.

“Eeep!”

The sudden lurch, however, caused Katherine to lose her grip, forcing Geo to reach around and stop her from falling from his back. Once she got her grip reset, Geo removed his hand from her backside and instead braced his left arm to ease the pressure on his shoulder.

As they flew towards land, Katherine turned around to see what they had thought was a landmass was instead a moving volcano of a beast. As they moved further and further away from the beast, more of Zorah Magdaro’s form made sense to her.

“So that’s Zorah Magdaros… holy crap.”

Perking up at her whisper, which might as well have been a normal statement with her being right by his ear, Geo couldn’t help but let out a whistle when he noticed what she was looking at.

“By the sapphire star, THAT'S what the commission wants us to capture and research? I hope the other fleets are prepared for it. I don’t think a pitfall trap is gonna cut it.”

Katherine let out a snort of amusement before a grin made its way to her lips.

“No, I don’t think a shock trap will either.”


End file.
